1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus, a control method for the information processing apparatus, and a program for executing the control method.
2. Description of the Related Art
Such a system is known that a host computer connected to a printer is configured as a printer server. Then, the printer is used from a client computer connected to the host computer via a network to perform a print.
In such an environment, it is necessary for the client to install the same printer driver as one installed in the printer server. As a program for facilitating such an install in the client, for example, Microsoft Corporation's Point & Print® is known. The client selects and instructs a shared printer on the server side by using an Application Program Interface (API) of the client. Then, information on a printer function and a client OS is exchanged between the client and the server. Based on the exchanged information, the printer server selects a printer driver to be transferred to the client. The client installs the printer driver transferred from the printer server. The above-described function is referred to as Point & Print®.
This Point & Print® function is mainly realized as a part of functions in an operating system of Microsoft Corporation. An advantage of the Point & Print® resides in that when a user operating a client computer desires to perform a print, it is possible to immediately and automatically execute the install operation. Also, a storage medium such as a CD-ROM storing the printer driver is not required on the client side.
A demand for achieving higher functions of the printer driver has increased year by year. For example, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2005-107777, a copy-forgery-inhibited pattern print function is realized by the printer driver. If all functions only used in particular occasions such as the copy-forgery-inhibited pattern print function are mounted to the printer driver, the memory amount occupied by the printer driver may become too large. In view of the above, as proposed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2005-208895, such a particular function can be realized by using an additional module that can be detachably mounted to the printer driver (which will be hereinafter referred to as Add-in).
As the copy-forgery-inhibited pattern print is a high additional value function, the license management is desired to be performed by an administrator only in a case where the printer driver realizes the copy-forgery-inhibited pattern print function through the Add-in. However, the printer driver including the Add-in is automatically downloaded from the server to the client through the Point & Print® function, and the license management is thus difficult. The Point & Print® is an example of the download installation.
On the other hand, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2002-23882 proposes a client license management method with which a client application program activation is enabled only from client apparatuses by the number of permitted licenses. According to this proposal, such a scheme is adopted that the license is checked when the client application is activated.
However, the printer driver is different from a general application program, and is sometimes made as a DLL (Dynamic Link Library) which is called from an OS or an application.
There is a presupposition that a timing or a frequency at which the OS or the application calls the printer driver cannot be controlled by the printer driver itself. If the license management is performed by communicating with the server or the like at the time of the printer driver activation, a communication is generated at an unexpected timing or frequency between the license server and the printer driver. This is not preferable in terms of performance efficiency.
Furthermore, the license management is not desired in a case of using the printer driver alone, but a flexible control management cannot be performed: for example, the license management is performed only when an expanded function is added through the Add-in.
In addition, if the license management function is included in the printer driver, the license management function is closely coupled with the printer driver. When the printer driver is updated, the license management function is also updated. The traffic at the time of the update is increased and the flexibility is not attained.